Drug Suspect Out On Bond After Swat Team Arrest

September 3, 1986|By RENEE KRAUSE, Staff Writer

HOLLYWOOD -- Stephen Ruddel, the recluse arrested Thursday on charges of trafficking in cocaine, is free on bond and has returned to his fortress-like apartment, police officials and his mother said Tuesday.

Ruddel, who lives on the top floor of the Anti-Aging News Building, told his mother that he would begin a drug rehabilitation program, said Frieda Ruddel, of Lauderdale Lakes.

``He did call me on Saturday night,`` she said. ``He told me he was back in his apartment.``

Stephen Ruddel, 47, was freed on $75,000 bond from the Broward County Jail on Saturday. Earlier that day, he was released from Broward General Medical Center after suffering a seizure while being booked into the jail, police said.

Ruddel owns the five-story Anti-Aging News building on Hollywood Boulevard east of Interstate 95. He turned the top floor into a fortress, replete with peepholes, audio surveillance equipment and mirrors.

The Hollywood SWAT team arrested him after rappeling out of a helicopter onto the building, where Ruddel has lived since the late 1970s, police said.

Ruddel`s mother said she never knew of his alleged drug ties or addiction until seeing her son under arrest on the television news last week.

From within the concrete walls, Ruddel ran a cocaine laboratory and became one of the prime cocaine sources in south Broward County, police said.